2025 Audi Q7 First Drive Review: Five-Star, Four-Ring Minivan

If you’re the sort of person who believes in lucky numbers, the 2025 Audi Q7 is right up your alley. Not only does the Q7 seat seven but, as tested, can tow up to 7,700 pounds. Coincidence? I think n—well, maybe, actually. In any case, even without the help of numerical divination, the refreshed Q7 is an impeccable luxury car for those with lots to carry around.

As the only seven-seater in Audi’s lineup, the Q7 is the Audi you get when what you really need in your life is a minivan but understandably aren’t ready to give up the image and driving excellence that comes with the four rings. And on those two fronts, the Q7 delivers.

The Basics

This second-gen Q7 first came on the scene way back in 2015, which makes it objectively quite an old car. You wouldn’t really know it, though, because Audi has done an admirable job of keeping it fresh over the years. The car received a big refresh in 2020, and another five years on, the 2025 Q7 brings with it another facelift. There are new wheels, available OLED taillights, and both front and rear fascias are slightly tweaked, but it is one of those facelifts I feel like you have to work for Audi to really notice.

A couple of new styling details to note, though:

• The entire range is following in parent company Volkswagen’s footsteps in laser-etching the full make, model, and derivative into the B-pillar. It isn’t super noticeable, but once you do notice it, it somehow makes the whole thing feel like A Product that’s meant to be consumed over a set number of months before you graduate to the next, bigger, badder model. It reminds me of how iPods used to say “iPod” on the back complete with hard drive size printed so everybody knows how much (or how little) money you spent. But given the fact that the majority of these cars are indeed leased by the sort of people who unironically and enthusiastically use LinkedIn, I guess it’s fitting.
• In response to customer (and internet commentator) demand, the tailpipes are real again.

Overall, the Q7 remains a handsome, under-the-radar SUV that looks dignified and luxurious without drawing too much attention to itself or its occupants.

Inside, the changes are even more subtle, but it appears to be a case of Audi not fixing what wasn’t broken. Two touchscreens—10.1 inches up top and an 8.6-incher below running climate—are nice to look at and decently easy to use. Audi’s default haptic touch thing requires you to push down quite hard on these to do anything, but that tech can be turned off. New infotainment themes change up the wallpaper, are synced to ambient lighting, and can be had in all Q7s from model year 2023 onwards.

By modern luxury car standards, there are a lot of buttons which is great. Physical controls for volume, drive modes, hazards, defoggers, traction control, and parking cameras all make living with the Q7 uncomplicated while steering wheel buttons are intuitively laid out and satisfyingly clicky. Perhaps this is a symptom of the Q7 being fundamentally kind of old more than anything else, but I’d also like to shout out the fact that even though the instrument cluster is digital, essential info such as fuel level, coolant temperature, and turn signals still get their own dedicated lights outside of the screen, meaning they’ll presumably still work in the event that the big screen fails.

On top of being unsurprisingly spacious, it’s also a very pretty interior. Good luck keeping it clean, but the gloss black here really does bring to mind a piano and is framed by expensive-looking brightwork and underscored by tasteful, grainy wood trim.

Second-row legroom measures 38.8 inches, which is 1.4 inches more than you get in the BMW X5 but 2.1 inches less than the Mercedes GLE, the latter of which is available as a seven-seater as well. Total all-seats-down cargo capacity comes in at 68.1 cubic feet, lagging behind the X5’s 72.3 cubes and the GLE’s 74.9, but everything is relative and the Q7 is still a big, practical vehicle built to do big, practical things.

Driving Experience

The base Q7 45 TFSI is powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder making 261 horsepower and 273 lb-ft of torque but the one tested here is the Q7 55 TFSI which uses a 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 making 335 hp and 369 lb-ft. Quattro all-wheel drive is, of course, standard. It gets from zero to 60 mph in a quick-for-seven-seats 5.5 seconds, tops out at 130 mph, and can tow up to 7,700 pounds.

Even by nice-car standards, the Audi Q7, like most Audis admittedly, is certifiably a Nice Car. Available dual-pane acoustic glass means it’s perfectly serene and solid on the highway while a highly adaptable MLB Evo platform that also happens to underpin the Porsche Cayenne and Lamborghini Urus means Q7 often feels like a much smaller car on a winding road. It’s easy and agile in town, too, like an SUV like this should be—the Montessori drop-off to Starbucks drive-thru pipeline has never been better oiled.

Audis seem to drive with an almost intangible cohesiveness that you just don’t get with Benzes or Bimmers unless you’re willing to spend top, top dollar. Q7 steers positively and precisely without feeling completely numb, all of the inputs have a real pleasant weight to them, and it’s just an extremely competent and pleasing vehicle to drive all around. A handful of drive modes (comfort, dynamic, customizable individual, or adaptable auto) aren’t crazy different from one another but make the car feel just different enough to give the Q7 a jack-of-all-trades quality that’s really quite endearing.

Audi Q7 Features, Options, and Competition

The 2025 Audi Q7 starts at $61,795 which gets you into the base four-cylinder model but a V6 like the one tested starts at $67,095. Honestly, in a time where the average new car sold costs nearly $50,000, the fact that a seven-seat, six-cylinder Audi SUV can still be had in the $60Ks almost feels like decent value. Doubly so when you learn that the comparable BMW X5 xDrive40i starts at $68,000 and only seats five. The Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 4Matic, meanwhile, starts in the low-$70Ks.

The value players in this segment include the new Lexus TX which hovers in the high-$50K, low-$60K range in 350 AWD form, the Acura MDX which starts at $54K for a regular AWD but $76K if you want a Type S, and the Genesis GV80 which… actually isn’t that much more economical than the Audi at all, especially if you opt for the 3.5T which goes for $74K. The Genesis is a strong product, though, and earns its price tag whereas the Lexus and Acura are nice options if you’d like to save a bit of money. But the tech and general aura of those two are indeed a slight cut below.

If you go with the Audi, a $3,800 Premium Plus package adds Bang & Olufsen 3D audio, 20-inch wheels, a 360-degree camera system, and contrast stitching. Alternatively, a $12,100 Prestige pack like the one equipped on this tester encompasses all the Premium Plus stuff but adds Valcona leather, Matrix LED headlights with laser DRLs, massaging and ventilated front seats, remote park assist, and air suspension. As tested, this Tamarind Brown Metallic Q7 rung in at $88,790.

Fuel Economy

In V6 55 TFSI form, the Q7 is rated for 18 mpg city, 23 mpg highway, and 20 mpg combined, just 2 mpg worse combined than the base four-cylinder, making the more powerful V6 a bit of a no-brainer if you’re debating between the two based on efficiency. At the same time, the Q7 is the least efficient compared to its two chief rivals from BMW and Mercedes, with the former eking out 25 mpg combined from its Bavarian straight-six and the four-cylinder Q7 actually matching figures with the six-pot Benz. Like the deltas in interior room, though, none of these margins are quite big enough to make or break any of these cars in relation to one another.

The Early Verdict

Unfussy on the outside, beautiful and spacious on the inside, and impeccably nice to drive, the 2025 Audi Q7 remains an extremely well-executed product and a standard-bearer when it comes to luxury cars that can carry a whole lot of things and people.

Wonderfully competent and multitalented, it’s practical, adaptable, and good at nearly everything it does. If I had to look for negatives or areas of improvement, the driver’s seat perhaps isn’t *the most* comfortable throne I’ve ever sat in. And, it has to be said, the general exterior design is quite dated and isn’t going to appeal to those who like to be noticed. But the fact that I had to actively look for criticisms at all says everything you need to know about the Q7.

Granted, rivals like the X5 and GLE aren’t bad either, and it may be worth your time to do some cross-shopping. But something tells me if you’re shopping in this segment, your time is quite valuable, so I’ll just leave you with this: If you do decide to just go for the Audi, you won’t be disappointed.

Got a tip or question for the author about the Q7? You can reach him here: chris.tsui@thedrive.com